Chairman Julius Genachowski

Chairman

Federal Communications Commission

Since being sworn in as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission in June 2009, Julius Genachowski has focused the agency on the opportunities of digital communications, particularly wired and wireless broadband -- pursuing policies to unleash innovation, promote investment, and empower consumers. The FCC under Genachowski’s leadership was the most improved agency in the federal government according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and one of Wired magazine’s “Top Seven Disruptions” of 2009.

Prior to his FCC appointment, Genachowski spent more than a decade working in the technology and media industries as an executive, investor, and board member. He was a senior executive at IAC/InterActiveCorp; serving as Chief of Business Operations and, before that, General Counsel; a Special Advisor at the private equity firm General Atlantic; and co-founded the technology incubator LaunchBox Digital. In the 1990s, he served as Chief Counsel to FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, after serving as Special Counsel to then FCC General Counsel (later Chairman) William Kennard. He also worked in Congress, including for the House select committee investigating the Iran-Contra affair, and for Senator (then Congressman) Chuck Schumer.

Genachowski received a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1991 (magna cum laude) and served as co-Notes Editor of the Harvard Law Review. He is a 1985 graduate of Columbia College (magna cum laude), where he was active in both the Columbia Daily Spectator and the Columbia Area Volunteer Ambulance; he also worked for Fred Friendly (former President of CBS News) at the Columbia Journalism School, and re-established Columbia’s oldest newspaper, Acta Columbiana.

He was appointed by President Obama to the Administrative Council of the United States, and led the U.S. delegation to Poland for the commemoration of the 65th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.